Some defendants face a situation where they know that they need to plead guilty to a crime, but that pleading guilty to a crime could seriously harm their ability to earn money and participate in activities such as attending their child's school. Here are some ways that you can get crimes not recorded on your police record, or removed from your record afterwards.
Minor offences
If you have committed a minor offence then the defence lawyer can request that you get a spent conviction (no conviction recorded) at the time of sentencing. This conviction is not recorded on your police record but you are usually kept under certain conditions which means that if you reoffend this initial offence will also be considered. Having an experienced criminal lawyer is very important in this case, as they can craft an argument that this was a minor offence and could unduly impact your life if the conviction was recorded. This is more likely when the crime is a first offence, and has not adversely affected a victim.
Serious offences
A serious is one where a person has been seriously affected, such an assault or aggravated burglary. In these cases you can make an application to have the offence removed from your record after 10 years after the term of any imprisonment has ended (this is recorded as the time originally sentenced and doesn't take into account any time off for good behaviour). This removal is not automatic and takes into account the type and severity of crime, the remorse shown, the reason for asking for the crime to expunged, the impact of the recorded conviction on the and the public good from continuing to record the crime. For example if someone has committed a serious sexual crime against children it may be considered in the public interest to retain their crime on record so that they need to comply with sexual offenders restrictions.
While you can apply for a spent conviction by yourself, it can often help to get advice from a criminal lawyer to help you craft the most convincing application for a spent conviction.
Life sentences
If you have received a life sentence this cannot be removed from your record. Life sentences are reserved for the most serious offences such as murder.
If you need to have a conviction not recorded against you, it can be very useful to speak to an experienced criminal lawyer to explore your options.
Share4 August 2016
I love all of those quirky laws that are still on the law book. It's a little hobby of mine to track down some of those laws and try and work out if there was a story behind how they got on the books. I've been doing it for 14 years and have accumulated a lot of material that I have researched. I thought it would be fun to start a blog with some of these stories to share with other people who like to know a little more about law and about history. I hope you enjoy my site.